Catholic Hawaii

The Office for Social Ministry
Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu

How Parish Social Ministry works:

Parish Social Ministry is based on the four-sided model which incorporates:

Direct Assistance

Direct Assistance addresses the immediate needs of the poor. This aspect deals with the effects of social problems.

Education

Education has three purposes:

• To teach people about God's call to social justice in the Scriptures
• To help people understand Catholic Social Teaching
• To give people the tools to understand the world in the light of the Gospel and to be able to understand the signs of the times.

Community Development

Community development provides leadership and organization to solve community problems. This can mean setting up alternative institutions.

Social Action/Advocacy

Social action and advocacy initiates action by presenting the problem to the organization causing the problem, or to the organization responsible for solving the problem. This element addresses the causes of social problems.

An Illustration of Parish Social Ministry

Due to a major storm, torrential rains wash out a bridge. People on the bridge at the time of its collapse are trying to escape from their cars and get back to land. The four elements of parish social ministry respond to this emergency in their own individual and effective ways:

• Direct Assistance pulls the drowning victims out of the water.
• Education explains that people don't have to fall into the river.
• Community Development gathers neighbors to organize construction crews to repair the bridge.
• Social Action works to get the Office of Bridges to do right by the people by demanding the repair or replacement of the bridge.

The Office for Social Ministry provides Hawaii parishes with an extensive support system and is prepared to give:

1. Aid in planning the work and the training of transformative, visionary lay leaders; the kind of risk-takers who offer an enlivened constituency, openings to new, holy ground;
   
2. Access to concrete vehicles that will serve as a way to integrate parish efforts, helping parishes to be creative but connecting them with models and people that work;
   
3. Supplementary audio, visual and written resources that support social ministry development in the parish;
   
4. Formation and education processes that keep those involved and connected to the Social Gospel, Catholic Social Teaching and the radical example of Jesus.